"House of Mist" stands as one of the first South American novels written in the style that was later called magical realism. Of this story of a young bride struggling with her marriage to an aloof landowner - and the mysteries surrounding their life together in a house deep in the lush Chilean woods, Penelope Mesic wrote in the "Chicago Tribune" that Bombal showed 'bold disregard for simple realism in favour of a heightened reality in which the external world reflects the internal truth of the characters' feeling...mingling...fantasy, memory and event.

"House of Mist" stands as one of the first South American novels written in the style that was later called magical realism. Of this story of a young bride struggling with her marriage to an aloof landowner - and the mysteries surrounding their life together in a house deep in the lush Chilean woods, Penelope Mesic wrote in the "Chicago Tribune" that Bombal showed 'bold disregard for simple realism in favour of a heightened reality in which the external world reflects the internal truth of the characters' feeling...mingling...fantasy, memory and event.